Son of Uri and Tamar. He was born on March 4, 1940 in Kibbutz Maoz Haim in the Beit Shean Valley. He studied in the elementary school and in the kibbutz high school. From childhood, he listened attentively to heroic stories and feats of dreamers and fighters – the founders of the kibbutz – about the period of the ‘Tower and Stockade’, struggles over the British authorities and harsh land laws and a war against Arab rioters. During his studies, he was active in the Gadna and completed a course for scouts and a course for air-force commanders. After graduating from high school at the age of 17, his classmate, Yochi, decided to volunteer for the Armored Corps during their trip after the Kadesh operation, during which Amir fell in love with the desert, its sand dunes and its expanses. Amir was drafted into the IDF in late August 1957 and assigned to the Armored Corps. After basic training he began his career in various units of the Armored Corps. After completing the course, he was appointed commander of the tank division in a regular battalion, and Amir was among the tank commanders of the IDF’s Centurion tank. When he was released, his certificate of release stated: “A responsible officer, capable of execution and leadership.” At the end of July 1960, Amir returned home to Kibbutz Maoz-Haim. At first he volunteered for a third year of service and worked as a counselor in the Mahanei Ha’olim movement. When he finished this year, he began to work in the construction industry. In 1964 he married Dorit, who met her when he was hospitalized at Tel Hashomer Hospital. All the while he was called up for reserve duty in the Armored Corps. His soul began to be torn between the repeated calls by his commanders in the Armored Corps to join the regular army and the deep recognition of Israel’s security missions, as he saw them, and his family with the birth of his son Erez. And the decision was made. With the warm encouragement of the family, Amir returned to the army at the end of August 1966 and was sent by the Israel Defense Forces to a tank artillery course in England, where he was appointed commander of a company in Brigade 7. His company participated in repelling Syrian attempts to divert Israel’s water resources. During the Six-Day War and during the war itself, he fought on the northern axis in the framework of General Tal’s steel division, after which he was appointed commander of the artillery section of the Armored Corps School. Tough, uncompromising, sticking to his ideas, but inwardly a gentle soul, a little romantic, seeking aesthetics and beauty. In the framework of the Armored Corps School, he devoted many hours to preparing his lessons, developed new training methods and learning methods, and assembled them in training manuals for tank artillery. At the same time, he often took care of the soldier as a person – he would pass through every tent, from soldier to soldier, demanding and interested in the daily “smallness” – whether the food was enough, whether it was hot or cold … Amir was a real example of a commander. “The story of the 77th Battalion, which will later become a legend, is Amir’s first story,” said Dr. Reuven Steinhartz, the battalion commander: “It was typical of Amir in the army that he would accept almost impossible tasks of creating something out of nothing. Much of his job was spent on creating and building, setting up and concealing plans without sitting on the laurels … Behind the response to the challenges were, like sheep assets, a strong desire, an inexhaustible energy, And he did not stop until he felt like a conductor of an excellent orchestra … That was the battalion in late 1969, when he went down to the Suez Canal to take part in the War of Attrition … “In 1971 Amir went to the Command and Staff School and finished it among the best students. . At the same time, Amir wrote about the need to raise motivation and willingness to fight (from his estate in “The Tragedy” – Kibbutz Ha’Muhagim Quarter, August 1978): “If we accept the assumption that the level of motivation and willingness is low or declining, – Our motivation to create motivation must be that every soldier and commander in the unit and in the structure should understand why he is in it, what is required of him, what is expected of him, and how he will do it with enthusiasm and readiness. … On the eve of the Yom Kippur War, the family returned to Maoz Haim, after it sacked Amir in all his wanderings and stops. During this period, the two boys Tal and Tomer were born. When the Yom Kippur War broke out, Amir’s battalion was composed, among other things, of course officers and officers of the Armored Corps course, and was given the ‘Oz Medal’ for his part in the war. Who fought in Sinai. He served in command and combat in difficult combat situations, showing his composure and courage, especially in the ‘dismantling’ and ‘Hamutal’ regions. In the area of Ma’oz, Lt. Col. Amir Yaffe fought all night and caused heavy casualties to the enemy, and he succeeded in extracting all his strength, after making sure that there were no fighters or wounded left behind in the Hamutal system. The enemy’s fortified structure and the most difficult fighting with heavy casualties – he rescued his unit with courage and self-risk. ” Journalist Dudu Halevi, who is also a commander in the Armored Corps, who fought alongside Amir in the framework of Brigadier General Baran’s Division, says: “… Over 1,000 kilometers, the division units fought from the area of Kantara to the city of Suez … Amir and his battalion were leading the armored battalions to the division’s combat operations … Amir was not an amateur, an army man for the time being. He was a professional and the best of them … He could analyze, point to achievements along with failures and present another method that would prevent future failures. He refused to praise and praise his activities. When he was forced to do so, he accurately and objectively described the days of battle that had taken place in his battalion … Amir defined his role as commander in the IDF as leading and leading in the war, as the quality of routine and creating the motivational infrastructure for Jewish-Israeli life in his army. “The future awaits Amir, not the easy career of roses and smiles, but a continuous struggle for his path, his opinions and above all the war. About the importance of man in the system … “About a month after the cease-fire, while Amir was with his battalion beyond the canal, his daughter Gal was born. Amir was appointed commander of a brigade in the Northern Command. In September 1975 he became a commander in the Command and Staff School, and at the end of May 1976 he was appointed commander of a brigade in the Sinai Division. The commander of the division recounts Amir’s qualities as commander and as a human being: “In the human sphere he was loyal to his subordinates, who followed him in captivity, feeling that they had before them an experienced combat commander with a great deal of professional knowledge. He was a believer in the rightness of the Jewish people’s way of life, and he preached religiously to the eighth and new recruits in the absorption and selection base. ” On the 13th of Adar 5737 (1973), shortly before his 37th birthday, Colonel Amir Yaffe fell on his way to Sinai. He left behind a wife, three sons and a daughter, parents and four brothers and sisters. He was laid to rest in the military section of the cemetery at Kibbutz Maoz Haim. At the open grave, the then Minister of Defense, Shimon Peres, said: “… Amir was not only a man of solid character, he was a thinker, he knew how to act behind the lines of the routine, The truth, that he told the truth, that he really did what he thought, he said and knew, and he did so with true heroism: In a long conversation I had with him about his career in the IDF, he said these things to me: … The level of motivation is a function of the level of command … because the power of the IDF is not in frameworks or means, but in commanders and leaders – and they must be professionals, thinkers, people who know how to lead … Head and should create a quality unit … People expect him that he would lead them in and push them to it … word of the commander must have a word … he must be fast-motion and set L’hsibh open ‘on the battlefield. He must not be domesticated, he must not swim with the flow … He must be the first in the field, head to the thinkers, lead the campaign, lead people … ‘That’s what he said after he drove, once and again, on the field of battle as the training ground … His Lev was in the essence of things, not their image … He disparaged the enemy. He did not ignore his progress. But he did not underestimate his abilities, the IDF’s ability, he followed me first, he promoted the latter, he was remarkably young in appearance and actions, and surprisingly mature in understanding the situation, understanding his people … We looked up at him admiringly He looked at him with hope, the potential hidden in him, the potential of a real man, a great fighter, a promising commander.
